Birthday Wishes
by dwparsnip
Summary: Katie's birthday comes around and because of their past McKay doesn't know what to do, until Jennifer gives him a figurative kick in the pants. McKeller pairing...again.


Okay…here's another one. I don't know where it came from. Really.

'Star Trek' and 'Mr. Spock' belong to Paramount Studios, and 'Stargate Atlantis' and all its characters belong to MGM.

Thank you Kipling-Nori for looking this over for me.

Any feedback, positive, negative or apathetic is appreciated.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

He'd lost track of how many minutes he had been staring at the alert that was blinking on his laptop. He was bad with dates and occasions, automatically dismissing most as unworthy of his consideration and just plain forgetful of those that he thought actually did matter.

He'd tried all the programs available to tell him when an important day had arrived and why he had felt it worthy of his valuable attention, but they were all seriously lacking in one area or another. Fed up with the deficiencies, he designed his own.

When an important date came along, the program tapped into the city's sensors and found his location, determined whether or not he had his personal tablet with him and sent a video and audio alert to the tablet, which repeated every two minutes until he stopped it. If he didn't have his tablet in his possession at the time, the program would determine the nearest available workstation and send the alert there. That alert would also repeat every two minutes until he stopped it, and the alert itself would be either very specific or very vague, depending on how many other life forms the program found in his vicinity.

It seemed a little silly to him that he still used the program in light of the fact that he only had one date set up for the reminder: Jennifer's birthday.

Or so he thought.

The flashing red and white Canadian flag that was currently taking up half the screen wasn't reminding him that it was Jennifer's birthday though, which for some reason he actually could remember was three months away. No, it was there in all its splendid and patriotic glory to tell him to wish Katie a happy birthday.

Katie.

She hardly spoke to him after the quarantine incident and left Atlantis not long afterwards, but no matter what he had done to her he felt compelled to see her before she left. Circumstances beyond his control, so he liked to think, kept him from seeing her until the day she left. She smiled brightly when she saw him enter the gate room and started walking towards her, but even he, as blind as he usually was to those sorts of things, could see that the smile never quite reached her eyes. He walked over to her and stood there like an idiot, opening his mouth over and over again in a vain attempt to say how sorry he was. Her smile turned sad and she hugged him, and he didn't have any trouble wrapping his arms around her in return. The wormhole wooshed to life and she released him quickly as though awakened from a dream by an alarm clock. She smiled once more, and again her eyes didn't or couldn't bring themselves to smile along with her mouth, and reached up to press her hand against his cheek. _"Take care of yourself, Rodney,"_ she said softly. _"I will always remember you."_

She was through the wormhole and probably half way down the ramp in the SGC's gate room when he was able to form even the most rudimentary response.

He didn't hear from her after her return to Earth, nor had he tried to contact her. He simply didn't know if he should, if he deserved to know how she was doing or even what to say. Over the months the number of times he thought about her diminished somewhat, but every once in a while on another planet he would see a peculiar looking plant and think that Katie would love to see it; and every so often he would pause as he walked past the botany lab and remember the day he proposed to her, only to withdraw it shortly thereafter. To this day, he truly had no idea whether she hid her emotions from him so well that he couldn't tell how hurt she was, or if it was that her emotions were visible for him to see and he simply wasn't able to. Either way he was oblivious.

He certainly hadn't meant to hurt her, and he remained blissfully oblivious until talking to Sam and Jennifer about it in the Genii mining hellhole. His surprise at what Jennifer said about it being a breakup was genuine and after talking to her and Sam about it briefly, and then Sheppard more extensively after they got back from that God forsaken planet, he felt more and more certain that he simply should be prohibited from engaging in any sort of personal relationship.

Until he tried one with Jennifer.

Like every great scientist Rodney learned from his mistakes, most of the time at least, and that being the case he had a lot to learn from his time with Katie. As such he did things differently with Jennifer, but perhaps the biggest and most important difference was that unlike he had with Katie, he didn't take Jennifer for granted. After going back over their time together he realized that that was his fatal flaw with Katie for sure.

A pair of hands suddenly rubbing his shoulders brought his focus back to the now.

"Are you going to goof off all day?"

He spun his chair around and looked up into the eyes of Jennifer Keller. She was smirking at him and not for the first time he wondered just how long he'd been sitting there looking at his laptop.

"What's the reminder for?" she asked as she peered around him to the screen.

"It's Katie's birthday today," he replied automatically. She leaned back and looked down at him.

For a moment he was unable to read her expression, which was disconcerting because he had actually gotten rather adept at being able to tell when she was happy, sad or upset. He still couldn't always tell when she was kidding around, and there were some other expressions she unleashed upon him occasionally that he hadn't figured out yet. At the moment however, her face was blank to him.

"I forgot I had that reminder in there," he explained hastily. "I really didn't mean…"

"Rodney," Jennifer said with a smile. "It's okay." Jennifer hesitated and thought for a moment about how to best explain what she was thinking. "I know you two were close, perhaps even closer than you realize. It's okay if you remember her birthday, it's even okay if you think about her," she narrowed her eyes in playful warning as she added, "once in a while." Her eyes opened wide for a second as she thought of something. "You should send her a birthday card!"

Rodney rolled his eyes. "Do I have to remind you that we're in Pegasus and the U.S. Postal Service hasn't quite made it out his far yet?"

Jennifer frowned, and he had no trouble at all telling what her expression said: he'd said something incredibly stupid.

Before he could start sputtering a defense she said, "You know what I mean, Rodney. Send her an email and wish her a Happy Birthday. I believe there's a check in call to Earth later today."

With that said she stepped back and then turned to walk to the door, her ponytail whirling around behind her. He watched her go until something clicked in recesses of his brain, and he jumped up and rushed over to her before she could open the door and took her hand in his to keep her from doing so.

She turned around to find him looking down at their joined hands. She smiled and waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Finally Rodney looked up into her eyes. "I've never really been good at this sort of thing."

Jennifer looked at him as though he stated the Earth was round. "You think?"

Taking her seriously he nodded. "Yes." He sighed and said nervously, "I ah, I think I'm only now starting to ah, you know, get the hang of it. Isn't sending someone from my past a birthday email, I don't know, weird?"

Jennifer looked down to his chest for second and then looked up into his blue eyes again. "Do you care for her, Rodney?"

He thought for a moment, and while many responses came to him he never once thought about lying to the woman standing before him. "Yes, but not like I care for you."

She smiled at him and edged a little bit closer. "Do you love her?"

Rodney sighed, more out of their increasingly close proximity than the question itself. "Yes, but not like I love you."

Jennifer's right eyebrow rose minutely and McKay couldn't help but be reminded of Spock from Star Trek when he found something fascinating or disturbing…

"_Crap!"_ he thought to himself and to her he stammered, "I don't mean that I **love** her…I mean not like that, that is not in how I…like Sheppard!"

Her eyebrow rose even higher and Rodney felt the flush hit his cheeks hard. "I don't love Sheppard! I mean…" Rodney stopped and took a deep, calming breath. "I mean I love her like a friend, not the way I love you, which is as more than a friend." His eyes opened wide for a second as he added somewhat excitedly, "Not that I don't think of you as a friend, I do, but you're much more than a friend to me!"

He exhaled and waited for a moment to see if embarrassing himself even further was required.

It wasn't, and his relief was so profound when she grinned in a way that told him she knew what he meant long before his distress induced explanation, that he couldn't find it within himself to be pissed at her.

"Then there isn't a problem, is there?" Jennifer leaned up and gave Rodney a gentle kiss to reassure him that she wasn't upset or angry…just in case. "Katie is more than an ex, Rodney. She's your friend, and mine too for that matter."

"I know but…"

"No buts," she said as she put her index finger to his lips to shush him. She lowered her hand and added, "A friend is a friend, and it doesn't matter if you have a history."

His look was incredulous. "You're joking!" He shook his head as he added a little more calmly, "It can't be that simple, Jennifer."

She laughed and put her hand on his chest. "Yes it can, Rodney, and it is."

"What if…what if she doesn't want to hear from me?" he asked somewhat sadly, or what passed for it from Rodney- a little guess work was involved sometimes.

Jennifer nodded as if expecting the question. She wasn't sure she'd want to hear from him if she were in Katie's shoes. While she had never held anything he did or didn't do to Katie against him, he had hurt her. Fortunately she knew him well enough to know that he hadn't intended Katie to be hurt, as did everyone who knew him, Katie included; besides, she was a sweet, kind and forgiving person and there was no doubt that she cared for Rodney deeply.

"There's only one way to find out, isn't there?" She gave his hand a quick squeeze and released it. "I have to go to work. I'll see you at lunch?"

He nodded and she passed her hand over the sensor to open the door. A moment later the door slid shut, leaving him alone in his quarters.

Until something clicked in his head…again.

He quickly opened the door and leaned out to see Jennifer halfway down the corridor.

"Jen?" he called, and when she stopped and turned to face him he asked, "Do you still think about, you know, old friends?"

She stood there and gave him a brilliant smile, that wide and absolutely adorable smile that always amazed him that she actually gave to **him **and not to other people, and by other people he meant other men.

"Not as much as I used to," she said. The way she looked at him and her voice, confident, steady and clear was an indication to him that she was being truthful…not that he expected otherwise.

And to his surprise, and perhaps hers as well, he was happy with that answer. He nodded and after giving him a quick wave she resumed her trek to the Infirmary.

He watched until she disappeared around the far corner and then went back inside to his computer. He sat there for a moment and then reached over, reading aloud as he typed.

"Dear Katie,

I hope you don't mind…"

He screwed up his face in disgust, then highlighted the entire section and hit the delete key. He took another moment to think and started hitting the keys again.

"Dear Katie,

How are you? I'm fine. I…"

"Ugh!!" he exclaimed as he shook his head. Once again he deleted the fledgling passage and rubbed his suddenly weary face in his hands. He looked at the blinking cursor and thought about what Jennifer said. _"A friend is a friend, and it doesn't matter if you have a history."_

"She's my friend," he said to the waiting laptop, and with that simple yet thoughtful knowledge he reached over one more time.

"Dear Katie,

I hope this email finds you well and happy. I suppose it must be a surprise to hear from me, and I wasn't even sure I should send this to you, but Jennifer reminded me that a friend is a friend…"

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"…at least Kavanagh hasn't blown everyone up, though not for a lack of trying.

That's it I suppose. As I said, I sincerely hope you have a wonderful birthday and have a piece of cake for me…if it's chocolate, that is.

Your Friend,

Rodney."

"So who is this Rodney anyway?" asked a voice from over her shoulder.

Katie tilted her head up to look at the man in her life, Alex, frowning at the screen she had been reading from. She couldn't help but smile at the jealous tone of voice he'd used and the suspicious way he was looking at the note on the screen.

Of all the birthday greetings she had received Rodney's was the most surprising, though far from unwelcome. Their good-bye in Atlantis' gate room had been far from the closure she needed, but once she realized it was a big step for Rodney to go to the gate room and see her, a calming sense of closure seemed to envelope her.

And then she met Alex.

"He's a friend from my last job," she replied honestly.

"Ah, the job you're not allowed to talk about?" When she nodded he asked, "A good friend?"

She nodded again. "The best."

She reached over and hit the reply button, and sighed when she felt a pair of lips on her neck.

"Don't be too long," he whispered against her neck. "We have reservations for seven."

"It won't take long," she answered.

Alex straightened up and walked out of the room, and Katie stared at the blank page before her. Rodney hadn't mentioned anything about the ending of their relationship, something she considered in the past anyway, focusing instead on the present and giving her some nonspecific news from Atlantis. She smiled as she decided to do the same and focus on the now and her life.

"Dear Rodney,

Thank you so much for your birthday wishes and know that I am happy…"

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"…I do miss it there, but my life here is fulfilling. Please say 'hi' to everyone for me.

I'm glad you have been able to find happiness, Rodney, never doubt that. Take care of yourself and I will have that piece of cake for you if, the next time you see a beautiful flower out there, you take the time to stop and smell it for me.

Your Friend,

Katie."

"This Alex seems like a nice guy," commented Jennifer from behind him. "And she seems to be happy in her new life."

He had been leery about reading Katie's reply email, as he half expected it to be a letter telling him to never contact her again. Actually, it was more like an eighty percent chance of it. Yet once he saw the first line all the nervousness and doubt fled him and he had no compunction about reading it to Jennifer, and he was glad that he did because he could practically hear the smile in her voice as she spoke. He turned around and nodded in agreement. "Yes…well she deserves it," he said.

She walked over and held out her hand to him. He took it and stood up, standing only inches from her.

"So do you, you know," she whispered.

His brow crinkled. "What?"

She smiled at him, or perhaps more to the point at his ignorance. "Happy, Rodney. You deserve to be happy, too."

"That's good," he said with a curt nod, "because I am."

They shared a short laugh, after which they looked into each other's eyes and Rodney wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into a tight hug.

She in turn snaked her arms up around his neck and was enjoying their warm embrace until he muttered next to her ear, "I forgot to ask the other day…who are these miscreants you still think about?"


End file.
